Have you ever heard about the imaginary student in Grade 13?
Chances are, probably not – since "he" was enroled over 80 years ago. From the of 1925 to the , Creston has many colourful stories to tell from the last 100 years.
Back in 1939, this mysterious student attended Creston Valley Junior-Senior High School — today known as Adam Robertson Elementary School (ARES). The new school had just opened its doors and was a major leap forward for the valley. Built at a cost of $85,000 during the tail end of the Great Depression, the new school offered an impressive range of facilities including classrooms for science, music, commerce, the arts, and home economics, as well as an auditorium, library, staff rooms for men and women, and a nurse’s office. Students could now join a wide range of clubs, play team sports, and learn from specialized instructors too — opportunities that smaller schools simply couldn’t offer.
Consolidation had been controversial when it first came to the table in 1937. Until the mid-1930s, the rural communities of Canyon, Wynndel, and Alice Siding all had their own high schools. Many parents resisted merging into one school district, worried about higher taxes and poor road conditions for transportation. But with the purchase of five school buses and a promise of improved infrastructure, the plan went ahead. On Jan. 11, 1939, the new Creston Valley Junior-Senior High officially opened with great fanfare.
As Creston resident Marj Gilmore once wrote, 50 years after the school was opened, “Today all of this is taken for granted, but it was a giant step forward” in 1939.
Among the offerings was Grade 13 — known as “senior matriculation” — a fifth year of high school designed to prepare students for university or vocational training. Not every community school had the resources, so being able to offer the program was a point of pride.
But there was one problem: to get approval from the provincial Ministry of Education, at least 12 students needed to register. Only 11 had signed up by the deadline.
And so, the administration invented the twelfth.
His name was George.
A clerk in the school office even went so far as to create records for him. Though George never attended class, he appeared — at least on paper — to be part of Grade 13's cohort.
A hint of the ruse appears in the very first issue of Hi-Lites, the school’s student newspaper, published in January 1939. The issue includes details of the school's opening ceremonies, a history of the Creston Valley's schools, transcriptions of all the self-congratulatory speeches, as well as a student column called "Class Chatter".
Not surprisingly, much of the gossip appears nonsensical to us now – 86 years later. However, Creston Museum manager Tammy Bradford stumbled upon one interesting tidbit:
"We want to know who 'George' is. Mr. Marchbank seems to think he's in Grade 13."
W.A. Marchbank had been the principal of Creston High School for a few years prior to consolidation, and when the new school opened he taught science and mathematics for all grades, and senior matriculation. Whether he was in on the joke in the student paper, we'll never know.
For more fun stories from Creston's past, visit .
- Photos and archival information courtesy of Tammy Bradford, Creston Museum
